CITIZEN PATRIOT • J. SCOTT PARKMichigan Department of Corrections director Dan Heyns takes a look around Camp Waterloo on Tuesday afternoon as he checks on the progress of the ongoing cleanup of the camp. Cleanup efforts have been going on for about a month.

Jackson County’s former sheriff was in the area this week, choosing an unseasonably warm day and an even better cause for his visit.

Heyns visited the former Camp Waterloo to get a sense for the cleanup his Department of Corrections has started there in recent months. Some of the trash, debris and other signs of blight are gone, and basic security measures are now in place.

That might be a minor accomplishment, except when compared to how state officials handled the prison facility when it closed a decade ago. They simply walked away. It was gross abandonment.

Neighbors have suffered plenty as Camp Waterloo fell prey to looters and vandals. There’s no rewriting the past. Still, Heyns’ visit was a nice reminder that he is working to make this situation right. And remember, it was not his creation: He became corrections director only last year.

Is the cleanup complete? Not at all. The old prison camp still offers invitation to mischief. And while prison crews have been put to work on this reclamation project, Camp Waterloo ultimately needs a professional contractor to raze the site quickly, ably and thoroughly.

The price tag for that could be $800,000, and there is the catch: That much cash won’t be found in the corrections department’s budget.

Heyns should continue to have his department tidy up the site, but there is a limit to what he can do. It likely will take the Legislature budgeting money for demolition and cleanup before the remnants of Camp Waterloo are gone for good.

So, state lawmakers, are you willing to finish the good work that Heyns has started?